Ecovative Design – a New Way to Make Green Material

Ecovative Design makes all kinds of beautiful eco materials, that is all grown entirely naturally, and has just been named Innovator of the Year, by Greener Packaging.

“We don’t manufacture these materials, we grow them” they say. “We grow them from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, a fungal network of threadlike cells. It’s like the “roots” of mushrooms. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium digests the agricultural byproducts, binding them into a beautiful structural material. The mycelium acts like a natural, self assembling glue”.

Using just mycelium and agricultural by-products like plant stalks and seed husks - and time – they make materials that are environmentally low-impact, 100 percent biodegradable and renewable, and are part of a healthy ecosystem – and unlike other bio-materials, do not displace any food or fuel production.

They have just begun developing materials to replace dense materials like particle board. By growing structural core materials with mycelium, there is no need for toxic adhesives like formaldehyde.

Their SIPs development promises to make an already very green building material even greener. Their building materials are still at the early development prototype stage, (they started with green packaging) .